


Magnolia

by The_Fanfic_Train



Series: Growing Pains [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Modern AU, but then the last bit aint great, julia and magnus would have been great parents and you can't tell me otherwise, prequel to silk and lace, steven is just a dad to everyone, this fic is ninety percent fluff, this fic single handedly ruined my carpal tunnel, this is magnus' tragic backstory, why can't i just let magnus be happy what's wrong with me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:47:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24867814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fanfic_Train/pseuds/The_Fanfic_Train
Summary: Even thirty years later, Magnus would be able to recount the first time he saw Julia with picture perfect accuracy, and- on a lie detector test- would have passed without a doubt when he said she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.(Magnus' backstory from Silk and Lace, but can be read as a standalone fic)
Relationships: Julia Burnsides/Magnus Burnsides
Series: Growing Pains [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781458
Comments: 5
Kudos: 47





	Magnolia

**Author's Note:**

> CW: mentions of (consensual) underage sex, major character death
> 
> (Also I'm trying out new formatting, let me know if this is better/ worse!!)

Even thirty years later, Magnus would be able to recount the first time he saw Julia with picture perfect accuracy, and- on a lie detector test- would have passed without a doubt when he said she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

Grade nine, last period of the day, wood shop. It was either this class or business for the credit, and if you thought  _ Magnus Burnsides  _ was ever going to be caught dead in a suit? You’d be wrong. He couldn’t think of  _ anybody _ he’d wear a suit for- but, well, that was going to change rather quickly.

New year, new home, new school, new weird cliques to navigate until Merle and Davenport inevitably deemed him too much of a hassle to handle. On the bright side, he’d learned one thing through several years of being bounced around- teacher’s pets sat at the front, stoners sat at the back, and people with friends sat in the middle. So, he grabbed an innocuous seat in the second row, far to the right side. The classroom section of the workshop was rather cramped, in order to provide maximum space for students hauling around lumber. Mr. Waxman was talking to some other students, laughing along as they told some story about what they had done that previous weekend. They were about three weeks into the semester, and Magnus was still pretty friendless despite being the newest member of the rugby team.

He was going to drop it, anyways. He thought it’d help him make friends, but all the kids were a couple years older and babied him too much.

Magnus just wanted to go home. It wasn’t that he didn’t like working with the bandsaws and the drills, because he  _ did _ , but he was tired of having to exist and just wanted to nap. Sitting alone in a cafeteria filled with people talking to their friends was nerve-wracking, even if nothing bad ever happened because of it.

“Hey, I brought you coffee,” a warm female voice called. It wasn’t a voice he had heard before- there were girls in the class, but their voices were too high pitched and irritating. Still too young to be a teacher, though, and as much as Magnus really  _ didn’t _ want to get pulled into conversation, he  _ did _ want to see who the mysterious newcomer was.

Tall. Really tall- taller than Mr. Waxman, meaning that this person was at  _ least _ six-two, and obviously very muscular whilst still remaining soft around the middle. She had incredibly thick, unruly dark hair that she had barely tamed with a bandana and a hair tie and a deep, royal skin tone. 

Magnus had to make a conscious effort not to drool, suddenly feeling  _ very  _ self-conscious in his nasty three-days-old t-shirt and sweatpants.

“Thanks, Julie, you’re a godsend.” Mr. Waxman smiled at the sight of her, and very quickly, the resemblance showed. Julie (nickname?) was his daughter, probably a student, probably on spare?

“Did you get those papers signed? I need to start earning my co-op hours.” She asked, sipping an iced coffee.

Mr. Waxman winced. “Uh, soon? Soon, just- uh-”

“Really?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, class is starting-”

“Dad,  _ really?” _

“Um, but we’re still waiting on a couple stragglers, so I can finish that really quickly.” He finished, turning towards his desk. “Oh! Look, Julie, already done- why don’t you run that up to Mrs. Roy, and you can start today- I know you know machine safety.”

“Thanks,” She rolled her eyes with a smile. “You’re such a dolt sometimes. Be back in five.”

The stragglers never ended up showing, but that was  _ fine _ by Magnus, because that meant less people he would have to make awkward small-talk with while waiting to use a machine. And, furthermore, meant less distractions when Mr. Waxman introduced Julia (Julie  _ was _ a nickname, but phonetically Magnus was pretty sure Jules- jewels? Was a better name for her). She was in grade eleven, meaning she was sixteen or seventeen, and had been helping her dad with wood working since she was seven, and there wasn’t a single machine she couldn’t use if they needed help. 

Over the course of the next hour and a half, he learned more things- she’d turned seventeen two weeks previous, and with her g2, her dad had bought her a jeep for her birthday. Mr. Waxman and Julia owned a carving shop together that they ran outside of school hours. She liked the colour orange. She couldn’t laugh with her eyes open. She had a smile so beautiful it made Magnus feel faint.

_ He _ wasn’t the one to talk to her, though.  _ Gods _ no, not looking like this- but she was standing by the bandsaw on “finger-duty” as Mr. Waxman called it, chatting with each person that came down the line.

Their first project had been to make something that could float on water. Most people had made boats, but Magnus, instinctively, had thought of a rubber duck. It was going to be hollow, of course, and he had  _ definitely _ bitten off more than he could chew, but Magnus had a bit of a completionist complex.

That being said, with Julia watching people use the bandsaw, he was pretty tempted to just cut the duck head off. Having her see it like this was- well, humiliating.

“Oh shit, is that a duck?” Julia straightened up. She’d been leaning on a support beam since the start of “finger duty”, but moved closer to look at his carving. “That’s fucking sick.”

“Oh, um, thanks.” He looked down at it. “It doesn’t look very good.”

She shrugged. “You’re not done yet, though. It doesn’t have to look good anyways, it’s the start of the semester. Ducks are my favourite, and this fucking rocks.”

“Thanks,” He flushed, stepping forwards to start working on the bandsaw.

(Magnus almost skipped the entire way home, he was so thrilled).  
  


* * *

  
His duck boat got an eighty. Mr. Waxman’s comments were: poor execution, but definitely my favourite submission I’ve ever received for this project. Keep working hard.

  
Julia had pressed a sticker that read ‘well done!’ with a duck in the center onto his rubric (she had signed her name to let him know it was from her).

She ended up doing “finger duty” some days and spent others just sitting on a desk and chatting with Mr. Waxman while the students worked. If he was done, he’d join them at the desks and listen as the two would bicker back and forth about seemingly nothing (Magnus learned that Mr. Waxman’s name was Steven, Steve to his friends). If he was still working on whatever he was building and Julia was around, they’d make small talk about what he was working on until it was someone else’s turn to use the machine.

It was all superficial, at the end of the day. Polite, friendly conversation, but nothing more. Julia definitely thought he was nice enough to talk to occasionally, but that was that.  
  


* * *

  
“Burnsides, what the hell are you doing here?” A familiar voice asked, crashing into the seat across from him. “And where’s your friends?”

“Oh,” he shut his math textbook. “Julia- um, well, it’s lunch, and it’s the cafeteria-”

“Shut up, you know what I meant.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Why’re you sitting alone?”

“I’m not, you’re here.” He said, and she rolled her eyes again. “Hey, speaking of which, why are  _ you _ here?”

“My dipshit boyfriend is pissing me off. He’s being a jerk to me to show off to his friends.” Julia huffed, stirring a fry into her poutine’s gravy and popping it into her mouth. “I don’t even like him that much, but it fucking sucks.”

“That’s kind of a dick move.” Magnus swallowed. Was it better to just listen and repeat back to her or try and facilitate conversation? It’d be bad to piss her off. “He doesn’t have the right to treat you like that. He doesn’t appreciate you.”

“You’re fucking right,” She frowned at her food. “I should break up with him.”

“Yeah, probably,” Magnus said lightly. “I mean, if he does it in front of his friends, there’s no reason for him to not do it when you’re alone, right? Clearly he doesn’t give a shit if people think he’s mean to you.”

“Yeah… it’s just- I mean, it’s not even like this is the first time it’s happened?” She sighed. “I keep expecting him to stop and he never does.”

“Seriously, Jules? Dump his ass. You can absolutely do better.” Magnus promised.

“Yeah, you know what? You’re right. I absolutely can do better. I’m going to call him tonight.” She said, suddenly reinvigorated. “And hey, since I’m down a plus one and you seem like you need to do something other than algebra one, there’s this house party Friday night at Angie’s- you know, the cheerleader? The rest of the rugby team is going, so there’ll be some familiar faces for you too. I think Angie’s got a little sister who’s in grade eight right now. Maybe I’ll play matchmaker and see if we can get sparks flying, huh?” 

(He did go to the party. He did not end up liking Angie’s little sister. But the rugby team seemed surprisingly excited to have him there, claiming that it was about time that they spent time with their newest player (even though they had never invited him out before). He ended up getting several invites to team bonding activities over the next few weeks, and it was  _ good _ .)  
  


* * *

  
Magnus ended up spending the most of his freshman year with the rugby team. Julia came and sat with them occasionally, as she was dating one of the seniors on the team for a few weeks. And they were friends by association, but nothing more- especially when, in second semester, they didn’t have woodshop together anymore.

Summer was another story.

“Maggie!” Julia hurried over to him when the last school bell rang for the year. “Hey, thank god I didn’t miss you- there’s a huge grad pool party for some of the seniors, you in?”

“Yeah, of course.” He agreed without thinking about it. He was supposed to help Merle in the garden, but one of the other kids would have to take the L. 

“Good, come on- we have  _ just _ enough time to grab swimsuits and get there before shit hits the fan. Stella’s got my keys- I have to go find Tracy.” She said, giving him a kiss on the cheek and running off.

At the time, Magnus’ heart had fluttered- he had wondered if Julia had fallen for him, like he had fallen for her. But, as he would learn over the following months, Julia was just a kiss-on-the-cheek kind of girl- and she honestly just saw him as a friend (as seen by the time she invited him to sleep over at her place with all of her other friends, and they just bitched about their boyfriends and painted each other’s nails. Julia had painted his, and he was a little embarrassed going home covered in polish, but ended up  _ really _ liking the way it looked. And besides, Julia had sat holding his hands with such furious concentration- he had one hundred percent of her attention, and it felt  _ good _ . They started having nail dates relatively frequently- Magnus would come over, and she’d update him on everything that had happened since the last time they had gotten together and changed the colours on his nails). The pool party was the first of many between his rugby friends and Julia- he was one of the only fourteen year-olds invited, and he held that honour like a badge.

Two days before the beginning of the next school year, Julia called the landline and said that she needed someone to talk to, urgently. Couldn’t talk to Stella or Tracy- she needed to talk to Magnus. If she left her house to come pick him up, would he be willing to go for a drive? The sun had set hours ago, and it was almost eleven at night- it shocked the entire household to receive a call so late.

Magnus was dressed and waiting by the time Merle had finished explaining to him what was going on (he liked Davenport fine, but if he focused on the shapes of his fingers for too long his head began to spin).

Julia didn’t bother getting out of her car when she arrived, and Magnus hopped into the passenger seat without a second thought.

“Are you okay?” He asked, noticing Julia’s white knuckles on the steering wheel. She pulled back out onto the empty roads after a short pause, and took a deep breath.

“Toby cheated on me with Marissa.” She said. “Maggie, you’re like- my best friend, and you absolutely can’t tell anyone about this, okay? Not Stella, not Tracy, not anyone on the rugby team- like, this needs to stay between us.”

“Jules, I swear on my life that I won’t tell anyone.” He promised. “But why can’t you?”

“I was hanging out with Chris and Teagan, and they’re both close with Toby, and Chris made a comment about how he was surprised we were still dating. And I asked him why, and he mentioned the whole Marissa thing- Toby told his friends he came clean about it, and he totally didn’t, so now I’m the  _ whore _ who kept sleeping with him even though I supposedly knew- and all our friends would take his side, because he’s so fucking charismatic, and  _ god _ , I’m such an idiot-” Magnus looked at her and saw tears. It was the first time she had ever cried in front of him- Julia had had five boyfriends in the past year, but most of the break-ups had been initiated by her or had been pretty mutual.

“Julie, why don’t you pull over? Do you need a hug?” Magnus asked, and she nodded, wiping away the streams on her cheeks with the back of her hand.

The moment she slid the car into park, Magnus leaned over the console to hug her tightly. Julia smelled nice, like lemongrass and rosemary- if it had been a different time, he would have complimented her. But as she sobbed against him, there was nothing for him to do but to hold, and to do his best to soothe.

When her grip finally loosened on him, he reached into the backseat to find the tissue box he knew she kept back there. 

“I don’t even care about Toby,” She admitted as Magnus handed her the box, and she blew her nose. “God, half of the time we were together, he was ignoring me anyways. I’m just- everyone at school thinks I’m some easy skank now, and I don’t want to go back- this is supposed to be my senior year, and everyone is going to think of me as-”

“No one’s going to think of you like that, Jules, not me, not anybody.” Magnus cut her off, taking a tissue of his own and wiping tears off her face. “As fucked as it is, people love drama. Just like how word would have spread about you and Toby still dating after the Melissa thing, it’s going to spread like wildfire when they realize that Chris was the one who  _ actually _ told you.”   
  
“You’re right,” Julia said, even though she was still crying. “You’re right, Maggie. You always are.”

“I know I am,” Magnus said. “I’m your oracle of wisdom, and you can do so much better than all these dipshits you keep picking up.”

“Oh, yeah?” She wiped her tears with a smile, finally starting to calm down. She turned off her hazards and pulled into the road again. “Well, oracle of wisdom, I think I owe you McDonalds, and on our way, you can tell me about how much better I can do.”

“Well, if I was your boyfriend, I’d never cheat,” Magnus said, suddenly very confident. Julia saw him as her best friend- the only person she could turn to in her time of duress. “I’d brag about you to all my friends, and I’d make sure you spent lots of time with yours- we’d go for dates at least once a week and make a whole bunch of dumb shit together using your dad’s workshop.”

“Well, Mags, whenever you get a girlfriend, she’ll be the luckiest girl in the world. Too bad we’re better as friends.” Julia said. “Now, are you going to tell me your order or do I have to guess?”  
  


* * *

  
And thus started the game of cat and mouse- Julia would get a boyfriend, complain about the way he treated her, and Magnus would say that she should dump him and he’d take her out instead. Everytime, she rolled her eyes and laughed at him- told him to focus on whatever they were doing, not her. He helped Julia and Steven (as long as they weren’t at school, he was fine with Magnus calling him by his first name) build a deck in the fall of that year, laughing as Steven accidentally kicked the bucket of stain over and covered both of the teens.

Magnus was still good friends with lots of people on the rugby team, and he alternated sitting with them and with Julia’s friends.There were also times when he’d sit alone with Julia, and she’d help him with whatever he was struggling with in class and laugh with him as he cursed out the math teacher.

The times they spent alone were bittersweet, and Julia felt it too- she was going to be graduating in a few weeks, and Magnus was going to be alone. He’d still have the rugby team, but Julia was his best friend. She promised that she’d still spend lots of time with him- she wasn’t going off to post-secondary, deciding instead to get her and Steven’s business off the ground more and get more projects going. She’d be home year round, and promised that she’d still call him regularly and drag him out to go for drives.

She’d been surprisingly single for a while, which was not the Julia Waxman he had known. Julia loved company and loved partying, and boyfriends were the best way to have both- and as much as Magnus hated putting up with whatever jerk that had his arm around her at the time, she was so much happier like that.

The first sign that something was wrong was the fact that Julia hadn’t eaten much of her poutine. The second was that she was relatively quiet through lunch. The third is that she wouldn’t look at him.

“Hey, Maggie?” She asked, stirring her food absentmindedly. “I’ve been thinking.”   
  
“Dangerous business, Jules. What’s up?”

“Well, I’m going to be graduating soon, right? And I’m just sort of thinking that if I want to give this a shot, I can either do it now or in two years without feeling like a cradle-robber. So, um, do you want to go to the drive-in this weekend? Same as always- I’ll do gas and you do snacks?” She said, not looking up from her plate.

“I just want to be clear, so I’m not getting the wrong idea- you’re asking me out, right?” Magnus said.

“No, dummy, I’m asking you if you want to go kiss in my jeep platonically- what do you think?” She shot him a glare. “Yeah, Burnsides, I’m asking you out. Accept while it’s still on the table, because it’s about to not be.”

“Hey, I didn’t want to get all excited and then realize I got the wrong message,” Magnus put his hands up in defense. “I love the drive-in, and that sounds like lots of fun. Saturday?”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.” Her gaze softened, and Magnus found himself falling into her beautiful brown eyes for the thousandth time. “If it doesn’t work out though, we’re going back to being friends. No weird fall-out.”

“No weird fall-out.” Magnus promised, extending his pinkie. It was childish, but she linked it all the same.

(They watched the first movie all the way through, sitting on the hood of Julia’s car. Half-way through, he started holding her hand and feeding her snacks. In the past year he had gotten taller, but he was still far shorter than her. She rested her head on his shoulder all the same, and her laughter resonated through him.

They moved to a different screen for the second movie, talking animatedly about what they had watched and what they had thought about the movie. Almost immediately after getting up on the hood the second time, Julia complained about being cold, so Magnus gave her his sweater and wrapped a blanket around himself.

“Well, don’t hog it,” She said, sliding under his arm so he was holding her.

He spent the rest of the movie staring at her, even when she called him out on it half-way through.

“Stop staring- you’re missing all the important stuff, Maggie.” Julia told him, smiling lightly.

“No, I’m not missing anything at all. All the important stuff is right here.” He said, making her smile wide and snuggle closer.

At the end of the movie, before packing up to start heading home, Julia kissed Magnus for the first time. 

Under the starlight, her eyes were wide in the semi dark and Magnus felt a rush of affection for her. “You’re the most incredible woman to ever breathe.” He told her and she laughed.

“You know, Mags, if you keep acting like this, I might just fall in love with you.” She warned.

“Isn’t that the plan?” He replied, a smile of his own on his face. “I know we have to go, but can I kiss you again?”

Even thirty years later, Magnus would be able to recount this as the moment he fell in love with Julia with picture perfect accuracy, and- on a lie detector test- would have passed without a doubt when he said she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.)  
  


* * *

  
Three weeks later, on the drive to a graduation party, Magnus lost his virginity in the back of Julia’s jeep. It had started innocently enough- the previous summer, during a sleepover, the girls had asked if he was still a virgin and he saw no point in lying. The girls had cooed over him, saying that he was so cute and sweet and innocent, and it had never come up again.

Well, until then. 

“Hey, Mags?” Julia asked, her left arm hanging out the driver side window. It was going to be a hot summer, and usually that meant Julia had the AC cranked up in her car (the wind tended to not agree with her hair) so Magnus was enjoying some fresh air. Their fingers were locked together over the console with matching purple polish. They survived another year, and it was summer. That meant dates more often, more parties, more Julia and Magnus and Magnus and Julia. He was definitely in love with her, even if it was far too soon to put that to words.

“What’s up, Jules?” 

“Are you still a virgin?”

“I mean, you’re the only girlfriend I’ve had since last summer,” He replied, looking back out the window. Sunset- one of the most beautiful times of day.

“That’s not an answer, Maggie.” She said, but her voice was light and teasing.

“I thought I’d made it pretty clear that you’re the only girl I’m interested in.” He shrugged. “So, no, I’m still a virgin.”

“You wanna change that?” She asked. “I don’t mind being a little late to the party if you don’t.”

“I don’t mind.” His voice was tight. “Is this really okay?”

“Babe, I’m the one who offered.” She laughed. “I’ll show you the ropes, I promise.”

(Julia ended up laughing almost the entire time, from Magnus’ questions to his complaints to the hesitance he showed towards touching her because he  _ really _ wanted their first time to go well. She had promised him that because it was not only was it their first time as a couple, but his first time  _ ever _ , it was going to be bad. And that wasn’t even accounting for the fact that the two of them were squashed in the back seat in the dark.

They arrived at the party an hour late, and Magnus couldn’t stop smiling- even when the rugby team pulled him away from Julia to play beer pong and she wandered off to go find her friends. 

It was one of the best nights of Magnus’ life).  
  


* * *

  
Flash forwards a year and a half, and Magnus was now the senior. He and Julia had had a fight just a few days ago, because Magnus was being cagey about his plans for the next year (he was getting kicked out of foster care and needed to find somewhere to go) and Julia was nagging him about it (she was worried that he was going to school somewhere far away and that they were going to have to break up).

Things were still tense between the two, but Magnus hadn’t ever really explained that Davenport and Merle weren’t his real parents (well, honestly, she had probably put that much together), and she’d only met them once. It seemed like a lot of work to explain that he was about to be homeless and in shelters unless he could find somewhere to live year round, because his job at McDonalds was not going to be enough.

Julia was inside, cooking dinner (none of them were particularly good cooks, so they alternated) whilst Steven and Magnus stayed outside, working on orders for the Hammer & Tongs.

“I think Jules is worried about you,” Steven said, power sanding the piece he had finished cutting. “Have you figured what school you’re going to next year?”

“Oh, I’m not going to school.” Magnus said, drawing a line across a two-by-four. “Don’t have the money. Just trying to find an apartment or something feasible now.”

“If you want, you can help out with the family business- goodness knows it’s gotten popular since Julie started working full time. As for the living thing, you should talk to Julia- she might be able to help you out. She’s still got money that her mom left her before she died, and I think she’s interested in moving out.” Steven suggested. “Might calm her anxieties too.”

“I just don’t want to burden her. Life’s going to be pretty rocky for a while and I don’t want her to be unhappy.”

“Y’know, Burnsides, if you’d told me on the first day of school that you were going to become a son to me, I’d have told you you were crazy.” Steven clapped a hand down on Magnus’ shoulder, which was definitely  _ not _ tablesaw safety etiquette, so it was good that Magnus was essentially a pro at this point. “You know what Julia and her mother have  _ always _ had in common? They’re tougher than they look. She might be burdened, but she won’t be unhappy, kid. I know my Julie inside and out, and she’d be angrier if she found out she wasn’t able to help.”

“Dinner’s ready!” Julia yelled out the back door.

“Julie, come here!” Steven yelled, and then immediately smiled at Magnus. “Ask her.” He said, turning and heading towards the house. Julia met him halfway, probably asking what her dad needed, but he pointed towards Magnus instead.

“Is everything okay, Mags?” She asked. “Are you okay? Did you cut yourself? Did the machine break? What’s-”

“I love you, Jules. Forever and always- you know that, right?” He said, reaching out and taking her into his arms. 

“I love you too, Mags,” her eyes seemed a little wet. “What’s going on?”

“I’m getting kicked out once I graduate. I’m going to be like, super poor, and I’m not going to have much to offer you as a partner other than the fact that I can take big pieces of wood and turn them into smaller pieces of wood, and who knows what kind of business there’s going to be for carpenters, but I  _ love _ you more than anything. Will you come with me?”

“Y’know, I came out here thinking you might have been hurt, and then I thought you were going to try to propose to me, and now you’re hitting me with the I’m-poor-but-let’s-be-poor-together line.” Julia laughed, leaning into Magnus. “God, I love you. We’ll figure it out together.”   
  
“Together,” Magnus promised with a smile. “And don’t you worry about that proposal thing- I’ll make sure it’s  _ way _ better planned than this.”

“I’ll await it eagerly.” She promised. “Now let’s go, before Steven eats all the garlic bread.”  
  


* * *

  
The proposal came six months later, on the first night they spent together in their new house. Magnus had spent the overlap from his eighteenth birthday to their move sleeping in Steven’s guest room. The man had truly become like a father to him, especially when, a week before they moved in, Magnus took advantage of Julia being out to talk to him.

His hands were shaking as he let himself into the backyard. Julia wouldn’t be home for another hour at least (she was buying lumber) but the vocalization of  _ hey, I think I’m going to marry your daughter _ was something he was struggling with. 

“Steven? Can I talk to you for a second?” Magnus called when he approached, but even to him it sounded strangled and forced.

“Yeah, for sure,” Steven (god bless him) could read the room and turned off his saw, looking at Magnus. 

“I wanted to let you know that I’m planning to ask Julia to marry me.” He said, praying that the shakiness of his voice wasn’t as obvious to Steven as it was to him. “Next week, when we move in. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I can’t imagine life without her. And I know you’re really important to her, so I’m- I’m hoping you’ll support us as we move into the next stage of our lives.”  
  
“Alright, son, two things,” Steven Waxman sighed. “One, I don’t have to give you the whole ‘you-hurt-her-I-put-you-in-the-ground’ talk, do I?”

“No sir.”

“And do you think the two of you are ready for this?”   
  
“We’ve talked about it before,” Magnus said, thinking about it. “We both want kids, and we both want to have kids young so that way we’re able to properly love and play with them. The wedding will still be a long time off, but I want to show her that I’m committed.”

“In which case, I’m happy for you. And I’m even happier for me, because this headboard is a two person lift job, and you’re here- take the right side, okay?”

Steven Waxman was a cool dude.  
  


* * *

  
The day of the move, Magnus couldn’t stop shaking. Julia gave him a strange look as he and some of their rugby friends moved in boxes of wood furniture (cheaper to make rather than to buy), but Steven distracted her with questions about where certain boxes should go.

It was a small townhouse, so there was really no need, but Magnus appreciated the gesture all the same. There was only two bedrooms, but the couple had immediately seen the room in the farthest corner and thought about what a beautiful nursery it would make, and were sold. There was no way they’d be able to move for a while following this, but it didn’t bother them any.

It was later that night, once everyone had left, that Magnus had asked Julia if they could go sit in the nursery and plan how they wanted to decorate it. 

“I think I’ve mentioned it before, but a jungle theme would be cute,” She said, putting plates into the cupboards.

“Jules, please?” He extended a hand to her. “Can we go see?”

“Oh, alright, you big baby.” She laughed, taking the hand and letting him pull her up the stairs. 

The room was empty and plain save from a dresser (Magnus and Julia each had one at home, but there was really no need for it in the new house until they had a third person running around).

“Can you show me what you were thinking about?” He asked, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

“I kind of want to do a painted mural on this wall.” She pointed to the one by the door. “Little monkeys hanging from trees and giraffes near the baseboards- if we put a crib in that back corner, it’d be like they’re watching over the baby.”  
  
“That’s really cute, Jules,” Magnus squeezed her tightly. “Keep going.”

“Well, I like where the dresser is now, and I’m thinking next to it we can have a change table? Something with lots of storage for wipes and diapers. And on this wall, a mirror and a toy chest, I think.” She pointed to where she thought each thing should go.

“I love it.” He kissed her cheek. “But Jules, can I be honest?”

“I’d prefer it if you were,” She said, turning to look at him.

“I’ve actually already bought something for the nursery.” He told her, making her tilt her head.

“Oh? What is it, Maggie?” She asked, and Magnus carefully spun her so they were facing each other.

“Before I show you, I just wanted to say that you’re the light of my life. Everyday, you give me another reason to be happy by simply being around.”

Julia laughed a little. “How ugly is this cabinet, babe?”

“It’s not- come on Jules, I’m trying to declare my love for you.” Magnus smiled back at her. 

“I know, but the anticipation is killing me.” She said, leaning down to kiss him. “I love you too, to the end of the universe and back.”

“Okay.” He pecked her lips one more time. “It’s in the closet, right side on the middle shelf. Do you want to go take a look?”

“How small is it babe?” She asked with a raised eyebrow, but turned to the sliding doors.

Magnus had checked it over and over through the course of the day, ensuring everything was  _ just right _ . At this point, the image was tattooed into his brain. A lion and an elephant with cheesy smiles, holding a little chalkboard sign with four words that were going to change his life forever. Julia slid open the door as he took out the ring box from his pocket.

“Oh my god- Mags-” her eyes were full of tears the instant she turned to face him and she practically pushed them over in the speed she fell to her knees and kissed Magnus. “Yes- god, fuck- a million times over, Magnus, I love you.”

“I didn’t even get to say it,” He laughed, using his free hand to hug her.

“Oh, shit, you’re right,” Julia wiped her tears. “You’re right. Okay, go for it.”

“Julia Waxman, the love of my life, my reason for living, will you make me the luckiest man in the world and marry me?” He asked, showing her the ring he had bought.

She didn’t even look at it before kissing him again. “God, Magnus-” She leaned in again, cupping his cheeks as more tears spilled down her cheeks. “I love you so much. Yes- a million times yes.”

“I love you too,” He kissed her back. “Thank you, Jules. I promise I’ll take good care of you.”  
  


* * *

  
Things were almost perfect. The key word being almost.

There was a neighbour who introduced himself as Kalen across the road who had come by two days after they moved in to welcome them. Almost immediately, Magnus had been uncomfortable with him. He only looked at Julia (and yes, she was beautiful, but she wasn’t a piece of meat) and held onto her hand way too long when she shook it. 

Over the following weeks, it became quite common for Julia to come home grumbling about something weird he had said to her in passing. At first, she had laughed with Magnus about it- the absurdity of a stranger saying he wanted to smell her hair and touch it being enough to make the two laugh. But over time, he wore her down. He started making comments about how good she would look tied up, how he bet she looked beautiful when she cried. More than once, Julia had called Magnus while she was home alone and said that Kalen was just staring at the house, and she didn’t feel safe.

They went to the police. They told them there was nothing illegal Kalen had done. They weren’t going to help unless he acted on any of his weird statements. And, unfortunately, looking was not illegal.

Up until their wedding (which was a small affair held in their backyard shortly after Magnus turned twenty) it was more of the same. Weird staring, weird comments, but nothing inherently harmful. The couple agreed that it was probably just someone with other issues, and that despite being creepy, there was nothing overly dangerous.  
  


* * *

  
The two had agreed, very intensely, that their wedding was to be a no-tears affair. Julia didn’t want to spend hours getting ready just to cry when she saw Magnus and ruin it all. 

The weight of this rested on Magnus- he was the quicker to cry out of the two. And in his defense, he made it a lot longer than he thought.

The morning of, he woke up next to Julia and immediately started crying.

“Burnsides,” She laughed as he woke her up, sitting to give him a hug. “Why are you already crying?”

“Because I love you and I’m so lucky and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.” He blubbered. “Also, I need to get my tears out now so I can hold my promise.”

(That was it for tears for the rest of the morning, even when the two had to separate to get dressed. That being said, the moment the ceremony began and Julia came out from the house, Magnus teared up again. 

“I’m so sorry, I’m going to break my promise.” He told her as Steven placed Julia’s hand in his.

“It’s okay,” She laughed wetly, squeezing his hand. “It’s okay. We should have known better. You can cry. I love you.”)  
  


* * *

  
About a month after their wedding, Magnus rolled over in bed and saw Julia awake.   


“I know it’s soon, and I’m okay if you want to wait, but do you want to maybe start trying to have kids?” She asked, and the answer was an obvious yes.  


And like that, the unease of the past year and a bit was gone. The house was filled with a new light- Magnus spent his free time building a rocking chair that Julia had joked smelled like grandmas, and Julia was designing a plan for a crib that they could work on together (they agreed that Magnus would work with all the heavier pieces, just in case). 

Over at the Hammer & Tongs, business was booming. The couple had since been able to afford machines of their own for their backyard, meaning that there was now two locations to work on all the orders. It was Julia’s and Steven’s pride, and the three had recently been discussing how they could expand their business without losing any of the quality that customers had come to expect from them.

Steven was ecstatic when they broke the news that they were trying for a baby. He hugged them both and told them that Grandpa’s would always be open if they needed a break, and that he thought that they were going to be great parents.  
  


* * *

  
Julia died on a day like any other.

They were in the insufferable point of the month of waiting to see if their efforts had worked, and if Julia was pregnant, so Magnus had spent all day in the backyard working on a dining room table made with resin and wood. Julia had been feeling bloated, which they were choosing to think of as a good sign instead of a bad one, and had spent most of the day in bed. She joined him outside for an hour in the late afternoon, lying in the grass and teasing his technique as he worked through his build, making him laugh and clap back occasionally.

They had dinner together (take-out chinese food, since neither felt like cooking). The following day was garbage and recycling, so they had already put their bins outside, and Julia took their garbage outside to be put out with the rest.

The moment Julia walked out, Magnus was hit with a very deep feeling of dread. He gave it a few seconds, waiting for him to be proven wrong, but it never happened.

He pushed open the front door, and there was their garbage bins, but no Julia.

He almost called out to ask where she was when he heard it- the sound of scuffle a house down, in a thin alley between the townhouses.

Magnus could, with picture perfect accuracy, describe the first time he met Julia. He could describe the time he fell in love with her. He could describe what she looked like when he proposed to her, and he could describe what she looked like at their wedding when they promised to love each other forever. 

He couldn’t describe what he saw in the alleyway. Julia was crying, pleading softly, and Kalen was telling her that if he couldn’t have her, no one could, and Magnus was reaching out to pull him away from his wife when Julia was bleeding, a knife sticking out from her side in what had originally been intended for her gut, and then into her shoulder, and then Magnus was on Kalen, smacking the knife out of his hand with a surprise attack and pinning him to the ground, hands wound tightly across his neck. He told Julia to go call for help, that he would handle this, and she nodded and was gone.

It was the last time he saw her alive- terrified and gushing blood and staggering away as best as she could.

He watched as Kalen’s eyes bugged out and clawed at him for air. Magnus knew the moment that life left his corpse, and it didn’t matter. Julia would finally be safe, without Kalen’s endless torment. 

Only later, after the police had pulled him off of Kalen’s dead body, did he learn that Julia had died without hope. She had died while on the phone with the operator, and her last words had been “Please, I don’t want him to die.”

Magnus plead guilty at his court case.

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I don't write angst.  
> This series: Are you sure about that? (I have plans for another heart ouchie to come out relatively soon)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, leaving comments and giving kudos!! Please stay happy and stay safe <3


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